No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.